


A Trip to the Zoo

by Small_Hobbit



Series: Twelve Days of Christmas plus A Few [6]
Category: Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 13:14:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13167675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/pseuds/Small_Hobbit
Summary: None of this would ever have happened if Mrs Hudson’s friend Mrs Turner hadn’t had a distant cousin who was an important official in the zoo.  But she did, he was, and it did.





	A Trip to the Zoo

**Author's Note:**

> Written for debriswoman, who requested something light-hearted.

None of this would ever have happened if Mrs Hudson’s friend Mrs Turner hadn’t had a distant cousin who was an important official in the zoo.  But she did, he was, and it did.

A few days before Christmas the afore-mentioned cousin of Mrs Turner had invited her to an evening event at the zoo.  Mrs Turner had invited Mrs Hudson to go with her, so the two landladies had departed together for a tour of the zoo in the dark.  A horse and cart had taken them round the zoo, which truth to tell hadn’t been all that exciting, since most of the animals had (very sensibly in Mrs Hudson’s opinion) been asleep.  But there was a reception afterwards with glasses of wine and nibbles and both ladies managed to consume several glasses of wine along with a respectable quantity of nibbles.

When the event ended, all the guests left the grounds.  All that is except for the two landladies, who had been wondering whether one of the reindeer they had seen had in fact been Rudolf.  Now, it might be wrong to imply the ladies had over-partaken of the wine, but it would probably be safe to assume the consumption of said beverage was partly responsible for what happened next.

They remembered where the reindeer were, but unfortunately they couldn’t work out how to get there except by following the route the horse and cart had taken round the zoo.  So they diligently took the same route, which, by a winding way, finally brought them to the reindeer enclosure.

They peered through the netting at the reindeer, but none of them had red noses.

“Maybe the nose only glows when the reindeer’s awake,” Mrs Hudson said.

“How do you wake a reindeer?” Mrs Turner asked.

“Perhaps if we get it to snow, flake,” Mrs Hudson replied.

No, this isn’t funny, but the ladies were in a condition where they both thought it hilarious and laughed loudly.  This, at least, had the desired result, because it woke one of the reindeer up, who leaned over the netting and stole Mrs Hudson’s hat.

At this, Mrs Turner became alarmed, and grabbed her friend by the arm, towing her away.  “Quickly,” she cried, “before it steals my hat too.”

Accordingly, they set off back to the zoo entrance.  But, since they still had no idea where they were in the general plan of the zoo, they continued to follow the winding route of the horse and cart.

***

Meanwhile, back at Baker Street, Bessie had become alarmed when Mrs Hudson failed to return at the hour she had been expected.  She tried to be sensible and wait patiently, thinking the ladies had perhaps walked back a little slower than expected.  Finally, she gave in to her worries, and ran upstairs and knocked on the door of 221B.

When Dr Watson answered the door, Bessie said, “Please, Dr Watson, Mrs Hudson’s not back yet, and maybe something dreadful has happened to her.”

Dr Watson reassured the maid and told her he would see if he could find the landlady.  Then he went back into 221B and informed Holmes he was coming too.  Holmes muttered he was busy discussing with the Ferret certain plans.  Watson presented Holmes with his hat and coat and told the Ferret to sit in the coat pocket so they could continue their planning as they walked.

Holmes and Watson walked all the way to the zoo, but could see nothing untoward.  There were no signs either lady had been attacked, and if one had been taken ill there were plenty of cabs around so they would have hailed one.  They had almost reached the zoo gate and were debating what to do next when they heard a “Yoohoo, Dr Watson,” from the other side of the gate.

“Mrs Hudson, Mrs Turner,” Watson said, “What are you doing there?”

“We can’t get out,” Mrs Turner said.

“And even if we could,” Mrs Hudson added, “I’m not going without my hat.”

“I should be able to get you out,” Holmes said, starting to take his lock picks out of an inside pocket of his coat.  “But I’m not sure about your hat.  Where did you leave it?”

“A reindeer stole it.”

“Oh, right!”  Holmes bent down, ostensibly to sort out the lock picks, but in reality to let the Ferret out of his pocket.  “Go and see if you can find the hat!”

While Watson kept watch for passing policemen, and tried to stop the ladies from giggling when they saw one on the opposite side of the road, Holmes picked the locks.  It took him a while, because he had to stop whenever anyone came close enough to see what he was doing, but finally the gate was open and the ladies were ushered through.

Holmes then set about relocking the gate so no-one would know about the night-time adventure. 

He had almost finished when Mrs Hudson said, “Look, it’s my hat.  It’s making its way back by itself.”

The Ferret had found the reindeer, and in particular the one which had taken the hat and fallen asleep wearing it.  He’d carefully removed the hat from the reindeer’s head and started to drag it back to the entrance.  Then he’d had the bright idea of going underneath the hat and trotting along carrying it.  Thus it looked as though the hat was propelling itself.

Holmes bent down, picked up the hat with one hand, and the Ferret with the other.  He returned the Ferret to his coat pocket and the hat to Mrs Hudson’s head.  Then he and Watson escorted the landladies back to their respective houses before returning to their own room for a very large brandy.

***

Aftermath:

The following morning one reindeer looked at the other and said, “Oh, your new hat’s gone.”

“That’s all right,” the other replied. “It wasn’t my colour anyway.”

 


End file.
